Winterreise
by lumecia
Summary: Eternal winter seems to have stopped the wizarding and muggle world in Britain and Ireland. The only question is: What is causing it?
1. Prologue

I know - I have quite a number of unfinished stories, but the bunny hoppling by was so annoying that I had to write it down, for I couldn't concentrate on anything else and neither could I sleep -.-° The story is somehow inspired by they storm going on outside for, what, four nights and days? It's annoying. So here you go with a story appropriate for a winter without real snow until now (at least in Nothern Germany)...I hope you'll enjoy it...somehow. :) (First to recognize the reference gets a cookie ^^)

By the way: You may keep the typos: Sue my cat-.-°

And..well...again: **If you hate slash, why bother reading this and waste time on flaming? Really, don't you have someting better to do? Imagine how many good hetero one-shots you could read instead of writing down how immoral the whole thing is...it's just an advice...you don't have to follow it, I like you even if you flame, because that means that you care...somehowXD And I like laughing:D**

~w~

**Storytitle: **Winterreise

**Rating: **For now öhm...I think I rate T, though this chapter is definitely K+ :D (Bambi's Mom died in Bambi and I found it disturbing as a child)

**Warnings: ...**well...people and animals die in this chapter...

**Pairings: **None in this chapter

**Summary: **See description.

**Disclaimer: **Well, I'd sure be dissed if I claimed the characters appearing in this story...So, no, I don't hold any copyrights of Harry and all the other characters...but I borrow them to play a little, ok? JKR, Warner Bros and an endless list of other people own this. Oh, and the Winterreise is a wonderful work by Franz Schubert. Listen to it - it's great! Plot = Mine (yey..at least something that belongs to me besides my cat^^) 

~w~

**Prologue**

~w~ 

It was dark. The last rays of the weak winter sun were long-lost to the fast approaching night,  
>leaving no warmth behind, but a piercing chill. It had snowed all day, leaving everything<br>under a thick cover, but now the sky starry and devoid of clouds. A crescent moon shone  
>down upon the still, white landscape. The cold breeze blowing caressed the old oak standing<br>in the middle of nowhere. It made the leaves brush against each other, causing a soft rustling.  
>Here and there was a faint creaking to be heard, when one of the old branches was caught by a<br>particularly strong squall or surrendering to the weight of the snow. Otherwise everything was  
>quiet. Most creatures living in the field nearby were asleep, except for the predators,<br>hunting their prey under the veil of the velvety darkness. There, the cry of an owl.  
>Then again nothing, but silence. <p>

It had been a stormy autumn, followed by a fierce and bitter winter. Many of the animals  
>hibernating in the ground, ponds and caves had already died due to the constantly unusually<br>low temperatures. Everything else alive in woods and meadows was struggling to survive in  
>the high snow which had been there since the untimely end of autumn. A night as quiet as this<br>one was an exception. For nearly two months, blizzards had wrecked havoc upon the country,  
>destroying the forests, aswell as the cities of men, with their unstoppable winds, coming down<br>from the cold north. People feared to go outside. Those unfortunate souls who had not found  
>place to hide from the everlasting cold had mostly lost their lives to winter's fierce grip.<br>Scientists were calling it the coldest winter ever since 1709. 

The atmosphere in this particular night was quite gloomy and tense. Men and animals alike  
>were waiting for the wind to become stronger, the clouds to form in the sky and the next<br>vicious snowstorm to assault their shelters once again. Roaring and trying to tear everything  
>in its way apart. <p>

Silence. Menacing, stirring a deep-rooted fear in all living being. The calm before the storm. 

~w~ 

Well...it looked like more in word... and since I'm too lazy to try to work out how to arrange this into a nice format in , I'll leave it like this-.-° Maybe I'll try tomorrow or so...

I hope you found it somehow interesting (wuhuu...snow and wind and silence...well done ...ähh...yeah...) and will join me in the next chapter...^^ Until then goodnight...

lg lu^^ (and cat...she snores-.-°)

I like reviewing readers (= readers who review...) and non-reviewing ones...but it is somehow good to have one's mistakes pointed out, so feel free to comment:) *arranges cookies and hot chocolate to warm you after this chapter*


	2. Chapter 1

Ok, so next chapter :D Wow, 3 Alerts and one Fav:D Cool. Well, it's still storming and I'm bored out off my mind (despite BBC Sherlock (wuhuuuuuuuu:D Benedict Cumberbatch XD)), so here you go again. I would have updated sooner, but when I wanted to, had decided to fumble again with the system and wow, what a surprise, nothing worked-.- They just don't get it, that one should not change something in a working mechanism, do they? So instead of testing the changes in programming on an intern server….anyway, that's my excuse:D Pretty brilliant, hm? Well, here you go^^ Enjoy:D

Sue my word 2000 -.- It has a grammar and spellchecker but doesn't think that it finds anything -.-

~w~

**Storytitle: **Winterreise

**Rating: **For now öhm...I think I rate it T, though this chapter is definitely K:D

**Warnings: ****Boredom…a main character's death is mentioned;_;**

**Pairings: **None in this chapter

**Summary: **See description.

**Disclaimer: **Nothing is mine, because else you wouldn't have to only look up some words in  
>the first book (as a not native english speaker in 6th grade -.-° - me back then) and then<br>never again-.- Oh, and do you read that Severus or both Weasleys, Sirius or Remus are alive at  
>the end of the 7th book? No? There you are:D Title belongs to Franz Schubert's<br>Winterreise…maybe I rename it o.0 Plot belongs to me:) 

~w~

**Chapter 1**

~w~ 

Harry Potter sat in front of his desk. He was supposed to be working, but really,who could  
>work with a storm like that blowing? The whole house shook and the roof seemed to be close<br>to being ripped of according to the noises it made. He stared out of the window. The snow  
>crashing against it resembled an unpenetrable white wall instead of that powdery substance it<br>was supposed to be. He really liked snow, winter, cold…normally…actually, scratch that!  
>It was becoming increasingly more annoying. It had stormed and snowed for more than two<br>months without a break and he'd been chained to being indoors. No one in his or her right  
>mind would go outside with the weather throwing such a temper tantrum. Well, yes,<br>of course he had been out, after all one has to eat and drink, right? And with the water pipes  
>being frozen more or less constantly he tried not to use them too often in fear of a burst pipe.<br>(It wouldn't really matter now, but if the thaw set in, he would have a real problem.)  
>Anyway, the weather was getting on his nerves. For god's sake! This was Great Britain,<br>not Siberia! It was really a curious thing, all of Britain and Ireland had been under a thick  
>snow cover for months, and the storms made sure that no planes could start or land. More or<br>less the same with ships. Now, the interesting thing was, it was confined to the two islands.  
>– On the other side of the canal (and also the North Sea) it hadn't even been snowing.<br>There was something like a rift in the middle of sky above it (the canal) and not one of the  
>clouds had been blown across it. Normal people had to find that disturbing. Hell, he found it<br>disturbing and he wasn't even a muggle. 

Since he had nothing to do, when finished with his work, he had begun to watch muggle news  
>on BBC and foreign channels. It was really entertaining to listen to some of the so-called<br>specialists trying to pin-point the situation. They hadn't come up with an explanation not  
>being so far-fetched and ridiculous that even the most simple-minded persons couldn't see<br>through it. Muggle government and meteorologists fed the people complete rubbish, just to  
>keep them somehow calm. Don't think that the magical government was doing a better job.<br>The was no big difference between the statements made by them concerning the weather.  
>"We are doing what we can to ensure no more casualties." <p>

But what else could they do than to advise people to not go outside when there was a blizzard  
>(as if there was someone so stupid), or on the magical side, impose an apparition ban on the<br>whole British and Irish wizarding community. – Most wizarding houses were surrounded by  
>all kinds of charms and wards, so people had to walk quite a bit before they could apparate.<br>The sad thing was, most magical people saw themselves superior to muggles and therefore  
>forgot that, in the end, they were also just humans, not made to withstand the enormous wind<br>and cold which led to distraction, resulting in splintering. It had quite a few times, before the  
>ban had been imposed. For Harry, it meant that he could not pursue his job as auror<br>(obviously), not that it was needed, even criminals weren't that stupid. Instead he had been  
>given a whole bunch of paper work. (Thank you, Hermione, for introducing the magic-<br>resistent PC to wizarding community and making it a standard for ministery workers.)  
>It seemed the ministery forced all its employees to do the paper-work of at least the last three<br>centuries. 

Well, not that there was anything else to do. Floo didn't work (Firstly, most people had used  
>up their reserves, secondly, it had been closed down due to the fact that there were too less<br>Unspeakables left to observe it, so one could only send objects through it.), portkeys were  
>reserved for emergencies. Maybe it was a good thing, the wizarding world was forced to<br>interact with the non-magical world, and also to not depend on their magic. The only problem  
>was that the food resources were diminishing very quickly. So something had to be done. If one<br>believed in the rumors, the Unspeakables were working non-stop to find a solution. But,  
>one had to face it, in the end, their work was as futile as the discussions on TV. No one could<br>do something against nature. 

He should really concentrate on his paper-work. Yes, it was boring, but it stopped his mind  
>from going insane. The problem was, he often found himself drifting away with his thoughts.<br>It wasn't that there wasn't someone to look over his shoulder to ensure that he worked, he had  
>been given deadlines, in fact. It was just really curious that nobody could come up with a<br>descent answer to the question of why the weather had gone mad. And it was not only the  
>weather – for some time now, he had felt his magic getting more and more unsteady. It was an<br>established fact in the wizarding world that he was one of the most powerful wizards on earth,  
>if not the most powerful. After he had defeated Voldemort in something like a duel that ended<br>in Voldemort loosing control over his magic and Harry trying to contain it in a shield.  
>(No big thing, if you asked him, since the Dark Lord had finally succumbed to his insanity<br>caused by delving just a bit too deep into the Dark Arts, meaning that most of his followers  
>had left him, except for the equally insane ones aka. Bellatrix.), people believed him to be the<br>strongest wizard since the Founders and Merlin. 

"What's the use anyhow? It's not like it gets me anything, except for Rita Skeeter's constant

articles and speculations, oh and not to forget Witch Weekly's. Strongest wizard ever or  
>not, I'm just as stuck as all other people. And as without a clue as them, Great, now I'm<br>talking to myself. Best I get back to work, before I end like Voldemort out of boredom.  
>I should have accepted the Weasleys' invition, then I would have been stuck there. But no,<br>I had to refuse and send Hedwig instead of just writing an e-mail to them. And there's no  
>point in going through records about criminals that died ages ago. Really, I get the feeling<br>they just send us this stuff to get us worked up. Wonderful, next thing I'll be talking to the  
>weather outside." <p>

He banged his head on the table, just to discover that, despite the desk being covered with  
>years worth of records, it was still quite hard. Just great, boredom, paper-work, unsteady<br>magic and headache. He sighed. It just couldn't get worse, could it? 

~w~ 

Well, and there you are wrong Harry-dear XD I make your life hell on earth XD…uhm…yeah…I'm answering rhetoric questions of my own writings-.-°

I hope you liked it…If my muse doesn't die in the next few hours, you might even get another chapter XD But first: Editing -.- And then writing the German version (HTLM-Code, I hate you!)…anyway, have a nice week-end, get some rest:D

Lg lu^^ (this time without cat…living room = cat-taboo :D Yes!)

*Popcorn and Coke for all*

The Soundtrack to this chapter was "Best of Goodbyes" (except for "Stockings" that's one exceptionally stupid song-.-°) by Tom Reed aka. Thomas Borchert ;D Last one had "Ruthless Lovesongs" by the same singer^^ Oh and somehow "Die Wetterfahne", 2nd song of the Winterreise. Problem is: Winterreise = A guy wandering through Germany in winter after having left/ being left by girlfriend..so I doesn't quite work out right at the moment^^ Except for the wind^^ I'm rambling sorry, enough :D


	3. Chapter 2

Here we go again^^ Took some time, but work was a bitch-.- Since I'm a student now, it no longer matters^^ Yey! Sorry for the shortness of this Chapter. Couldn't do anything about it – it just didn't fit with the next -.- Sorry again for Spelling/Grammar etc. mistakes – If you write them down in you posts, I'll correct them. I just don't have the time two check everything -.-° But I ran the new spell checker, so maybe there won't be as many mistakes as before:) (That's why you probably got some extra alerts; sorry for that)

Well, off you go. Enjoy reading.^^

~w~

**Disclaimer: **Still not mine. Otherwise there would be no question whether there will be an 8th book, but when.^^ Well the plot is.

~w~

**Chapter 2**

~w~

**He banged his head on the table, just to discover that, despite the desk being covered  
>with years worth of records, it was still quite hard. Just great, boredom, paper-work,<br>unsteady magic and headache. He sighed. It just couldn't get worse, could it?**

Well, actually it could get a lot worse and that was what the whole of Britain and Ireland  
>experienced some days later.<p>

Harry woke up close to midnight. He was a little confused due to the lack of noise. It seemed  
>as if the whole world had frozen. No noise at all, just silence. He quickly pulled on some<br>trousers, a jumper and a coat and went upstairs. He pried the balcony door open – the snow  
>had formed an additional wall before it - and somehow made his way trough the snow to<br>catch a glimpse of the world outside. Everything was, as usual these days, covered with the  
>fine white powder, but there was nearly no wind, except for a soft breeze.<p>

There was something in the air. The whole thing was, in a word, odd. It had stormed day and  
>night for nearly two and a half month and seemingly at a moment's notice, there was nothing<br>left of those immense powers, but a little bit of wind. Harry felt himself growing tense. It was  
>no conscious reaction, more like a primal instinct. It was just too still. The total the silence<br>was irritating. He felt a shiver down his spine which was not caused by the cold. Something  
>was wrong, very wrong. There was feeling, something he had felt before, after Voldemort had<br>died and again sometime last summer. A void in the magic, as if something essential, making  
>it was it was, had suddenly disappeared. He suspected that most of the wizarding community<br>didn't even notice the subtle shift in the nature of the all surrounding magic. – Nobody had  
>noticed it last time. At least nobody he knew or who worked for newspaper.<p>

Probably it was something linked to the magical strength of a wizard. The more magic one  
>had, the more connected one felt to it and the magic of nature. He suspected that Snape,<br>Voldemort or Dumbledore would have felt it, too. Harry had talked to Hermione about the whole thing,  
>who had done some research. In the last centuries there had been a few powerful<br>wizards who had also felt this void-like change in nature's magic, often after a very powerful  
>wizard had died or when things of a world-changing nature were about to happen. Harry had<br>the unpleasant suspicion that the momentary void was caused by some wizard or witch dying.

He rushed back inside, quickly spelled proper clothes on, grabbed his already packed suitcase,  
>locked and warded the house and activated his emergency portkey. He still didn't like<br>portkeys, his years at Hogwarts had left quite a number of imprints on him. Some of them had  
>formed his character, his career, some were just bothersome, for example the constant fear of<br>ending somewhere unexpected when using a portkey.

Fortunately, the portkey took him exactly where he had intended to go.

~w~

So, that's it for now. It would be really great, if someone bothered to review:)


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